


You're Safe with Me

by guiltlessguillotine



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Chiaki and Gundham are nonbinary, Childhood Trauma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Komaeda Nagito Being Komaeda Nagito, M/M, POV Second Person, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, we need better tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25544971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guiltlessguillotine/pseuds/guiltlessguillotine
Summary: Hajime discovers Nagito is an age regressor due to his trauma, and starts to understand him a little better.Takes place after the second trial.Do not interact with this work if you sexualize age regression. This is not for you.
Relationships: Hinata Hajime & Komaeda Nagito, Hinata Hajime & Nanami Chiaki, Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito
Comments: 33
Kudos: 291





	1. Suspicion

Every single day the weather is exactly the same. Clear skies and Hot, humid air. At first it was nice, you can walk around shirtless, go swimming whenever you like, and the cottages are air conditioned if you need to get away for a while. But it quickly got tiring. If you want to spend time outside, you are going to sweat. It doesn’t matter if you dress for the weather, you are going to be uncomfortable despite your best efforts. 

And that’s not the only thing on the island to drive you crazy. There are bugs everywhere, and bug spray does nothing. Seagulls will try to steal your food if you dare to eat outside. And there is never not sand in your shoes. But maybe at this point, you’re just looking for things to complain about. 

You’re sitting at breakfast with the others, trying your best to block out the bickering and eat your french toast. Unfortunately Hiyoko’s shrill voice is cutting through your focus as she argues with Kazuichi about something you're sure you don’t want to be involved in. 

The two of them are standing by the stairs, Hiyoko is standing with her fists clenched tightly at her sides as she looks up at Kazuichi, red faced from yelling. Kazuichi does not look very happy to be part of this conversation, and appears to be edging further and further towards the stairs to escape.

You sigh deeply and stare at your plate. You think you’ve lost your appetite. Suddenly there’s a hand on your shoulder and you look up, meeting eyes with Chiaki. They smile warmly, in a way that makes you feel a little less stressed than you did just seconds before. “Hajime, maybe you should go for a walk. You seem stressed. I can calm them down… I think.”

You don’t really want to go outside, it’s hot as ever and you already have a sunburn, but it does seem tempting at the moment. Sweating is better than dealing with whatever's going on in the restaurant. You nod and try your best to return their smile. “Thanks.” you say quietly and get to your feet. 

You leave through the balcony exit to avoid getting in Hiyoko and Kazuichi’s way, heading down the stairs and through the front gates of the hotel. You rub your face vigorously with your palms as you walk, as if trying to wipe off all the stress. 

Everyone’s been on edge since the last trial, however many times everyone vows to never allow another killing to happen, you know that can’t be guaranteed. That’s what everyone said last time, and now Peko and Mahiru… 

You can’t imagine what Fuyuhiko and Hiyoko are going through. It hurts to even think about it. But you can’t stop yourself from doing just that, the trial running through your head on an endless repeat. Could this have been stopped? Did they really have to die so horribly? _**Who’s going to die next?**_

With these thoughts swimming through your head, you soon find yourself starting to walk past the beach, you’re not entirely sure where you’re headed. Maybe the library, it’s always cool and quiet.The only people who stop in there frequently are Gundham and Sonia, and you don’t mind running into them.

As you're thinking about this, something on the beach catches your eye, or rather, someone. Nagito is sitting on the beach, leaning up against a palm tree with his knees drawn up to his chest. He’s wearing his jacket, as always, which never fails to baffle you when it’s this hot. Your eyes narrow at him, he doesn’t seem to be doing anything suspicious, but you’ve never seen him on his own like this. 

He was acting odd at breakfast this morning, he picked at his food for a while and then went on his way, claiming he wanted to take a shower. However, his hair appears to be completely dry now. 

You can’t help but being nervous, he’s a dangerous person, how could you not be when he’s behaving so strangely? Your eyes briefly scan the beach, almost expecting to see a weapon, but when you don’t you decide there’s not much else to do besides talk to him. 

Sighing, you toe off your shoes and carry them with you as you make your way over to him. You set them down by the tree and sit down beside him, cross legged. You don’t think he’s noticed you, he’s staring blankly out over the ocean, his chin resting on his knees. HIs hair blows a bit in the breeze and you can’t think of much else besides the fact that his hair seems to be a very weird texture. 

After a few seconds, you clear your throat. Nagito almost jumps out of his skin, scrambling further up against the tree, his head whipping around to look at you. You raise your eyebrows at him, you didn’t think he was really the type to get startled. When the two of you make eye contact his body relaxes, sinking back down onto the sand and laughing sheepishly.

“Sorry, Hajime! I guess I really spaced out there, huh? I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long, someone like me shouldn’t be wasting the time of an ultimate.” He says apologetically. His smile quickly fades after saying that, his gaze wandering down to his hands, which are shaking slightly. He shoves them into his pockets. “So, can I help you with anything?”

You frown and scan his face, he’s definitely being weird. Could he be planning something? He doesn’t seem to be doing anything. “I don’t need anything. I was just on a walk and I saw you here.” you pause, the two of you looking at each other for a moment before you turn your head and look out over the water. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t doing anything weird.”

Nagito chuckles. It sounds forced, unlike his usual laugh, so much so that the insincerity almost burns. “You don’t have to worry about me, I’m as good as ever! Just enjoying the beautiful scenery.” The two of you look at the ocean, sure it’s beautiful, you guess, but why would he leave breakfast to go stare at it?

Every word he says sounds more forced than the last, it makes your skin crawl. You can’t imagine what could’ve happened to make him act like this. If it were any normal person, you’d think they were just upset about being stuck on this island, or maybe about the recent trial. But this isn’t a normal person, this is Nagito. There’s probably a much weirder reason. The two of you are silent for a few minutes, Nagito seems to space out again, his head leaning against the palm tree as he stares vacantly out in front of him. 

“Weren’t you going to take a shower?” you ask. Maybe if you catch him in a lie, he’ll tell you what he’s up to. He can’t talk his way out of this one.

“Oh, yes,” he says, halting for a moment before continuing. “I already did, my hair’s dry because I got a blow dryer from the store. They really have everything you could ever want there! Have you found anything good there, Hajime?” he cocks his head to the side curiously.

You don’t think you’ve ever heard a more blatant attempt at distracting someone than that. You sigh again and get to your feet, grabbing your shoes from beside the tree. “Look, Nagito, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you better not be planning something." YOu start walking away. "I’m going to the library.” 

You get about five feet away from him before you stop and look back. He’s still staring out over the water. “If you… If you decide you want to tell someone what’s going on, then that’s where I’ll be, I guess.” You think you see him give a small nod, and you walk off the beach, back to the road. 

You’re not entirely sure why you said that. Or why you keep subjecting yourself to him in the first place. You're sure it's morbid curiosity. What else would it be? 

Instead of thinking about it, you slip your shoes back on and head for the bridge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Hajime didn't find out in this chapter, but he will soon, I'm just layin' the ground work. I don't know if I'm going to make this a super long thing, time will tell, but I hope you enjoy it regardless. 
> 
> I also apologize for any grammar or spelling errors, I'm dyslexic.


	2. Abnormal for the Abnormal

You manage to put Nagito out of your mind, at least for a little while. You spend your afternoon in the library, you start out trying to find more reading material on Jabberwock Island, but as you repeatedly come up empty handed with every book you flip through your resolve grows thin.

Eventually you decide to cut your losses and do something else. You scan the rows and rows of books and finally settle on a book you heard Sonia raving about at dinner the other night. You doubt your tastes are the same, or even really similar, but you might as well give it a chance. 

It’s a thriller novel told from the perspective of a serial killer, who’s a high school girl and straight A student. This normally wouldn’t be remotely your cup of tea, but it’s engaging and manages to distract you from your worries, and that’s enough right now. Being in a library makes it easy to pretend this really is an average high school trip, and that there’s no threat to your safety. No killing game. And no completely unpredictable and arguably insane boy who seems to have latched onto you.

You frown as your mind wanders back to Nagito. This is not what you wanted to be thinking about, you came here to get away from your problems but you seem to have only been met with slightly different ones. You set the book down on the table and rub your temples, gritting your teeth in frustration. 

Taking a deep breath and leaning back in your chair, you stare up at the ceiling. It’s nice to be in a building where none of your friends have died. It then strikes you how horrible it is to even be in a situation where you have that thought in the first place. 

You came here to be alone, but now you don’t really want to be. After all there’s safety in numbers, and it’s comforting to have people around who are going through the same thing as you. You push out from the table and stand up, tucking the book under your arm. You may as well finish it now that you’ve put a decent dent into the page count. And you’re sure Sonia would love to talk to you about it.

When you step outside with your book, it’s hot as ever, but now that you're not so irritated it seems a little less overwhelming. You start heading back to the hotel, kicking a pebble along as you walk. You keep up a fairly fast pace, you don’t like walking on your own for long periods of time here. It feels like it’s just asking for trouble. Soon you’re across the bridge and You decide to take the long way around so you can pass the beach again, just to make sure Nagito hasn’t done anything bad. 

He’s not there, that’s probably a good thing. You hope he’s back at the hotel where someone can always keep an eye on him, having him on his own makes you nervous. Though you don’t want him tied up again, it was reassuring knowing where he was at all times. You briefly consider stopping at the store to get something cold, but decide against it. You should probably check in on everyone before you go off and do another thing on your own.

You pass through the gates of the hotel and find yourself outside the entrance to the lobby, where Akane and Ibuki are swimming together while a few of the others chat on the sidelines. It’s almost as if this is a normal hotel. Chiaki is asleep in one of the lounge chairs beside the pool, one of their hands hanging off the side of the chair. You don’t really want to wake her up, but you think she’s the most likely to know what’s going on with Nagito.

You make your way over to her, but not before waving to Ibuki who shouts out an enthusiastic greeting, quickly raising her hand up out of the water to wave and splashing Akane in the process. It makes you smile a bit, you're glad she can still manage to have fun with everything happening, even if you don’t really understand how she does it. 

You kneel down beside Chiaki and gently jostle their shoulder. They mumble something quietly and turn their head away from you. You frown and shake their shoulder a bit more. They hum and their eyes slowly slide open. 

“Oh, hey Hajime. I guess I fell asleep again, huh?” They sit up and stretch their arms, yawning. You’re never going to understand how they sleep through so much noise, Akane and Ibuki are causing a racket just a few feet away. 

“SOrry to wake you, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.” 

Chiaki rubs their eyes and looks over at you sleepily. “Ahuh?” 

“Have you talked to Nagito at all today? He’s acting... strange.” 

They put a finger on their chin and think about it for a moment. “Hmm, yeah. I saw him about an hour ago, I think.” the two of you look at each other for a moment before they seem to understand that you want them to elaborate. “He came into the hotel area and talked to me for a minute or two by the cabins. He did seem different. Maybe quieter than usual. He went into his cabin pretty fast after that.” 

You nod and think about that for a few seconds.

“Are you worried about him, Hajime?” Chiaki asks, cocking their head to the side. 

“I- no, I mean, I’m worried about him doing something bad. I just don’t want him hurting anyone.” you say quickly.

They nod slowly. “He’ll probably show up for dinner, maybe you can ask him about it then?” 

You’re not really sure he’s going to be willing to talk about it, he seemed pretty stubborn this morning. And he never showed up to the library, even though you told him where you were going. Regardless, you think you might as well try. “I’ll do that. Thanks for the help.” You get to your feet, Chiaki smiles and leans back in her chair, dozing off again almost immediately. 

You spend some time with Ibuki and Akane, as well as Kazuichi who's sitting by the pool. The four of you end up hanging out for hours, eventually leaving the pool and getting snacks from the store and eating them at the beach. Eventually the sun starts to go down, the breeze becoming cooler and stars slowly appearing above you. You and the others reluctantly head back to the hotel, retrieving Chiaki from the games in the lobby and heading up to the restaurant. 

Almost everyone has already arrived, including Nagito. Everyone starts piling their plates with food, and watching Nagito sitting at a table for a moment, you start to as well. The food is usually the same everyday depending on the meal, but there’s so much variety that if you wanted to you could eat something new everyday. 

After grabbing your food, you glance around the room. Normally, everyone chooses tables relatively close to each other, and that's what _**most**_ people are doing now. Everyone except Nagito. He’s sitting at one of the tables in the corner, close to the balcony. He’s hunched over, staring down at a single bowl of rice and poking at it with a pair of chopsticks. 

You sigh for what feels like the hundredth time today, and walk over to his table. You set down your plate in front of the seat next to him, pull out your chair and take a seat. He slowly looks up and plasters on the fakest smile you’ve ever seen. 

“Wow, Hajime, I’m really glad that you decided to eat with me tonight!” he glances down at the table, chuckling quietly. “I hope I don’t ruin your meal or anything, if I bother you too much, please don’t hesitate to tell me to be quiet.” 

As soon as he breaks eye contact and turns his attention back to his bowl, his smile falls and he goes back to dejectedly picking at his rice. You grimace, both at what he’s just said and how strange he’s still acting. You have no idea what you plan on saying to him. How does someone confront a guy like him on his odd behavior, when he’s _**always**_ acting odd? But this is wrong, he’s being weird in the _**wrong way.**_

You hate to say it, but you wish he’d go back to smiling and babbling about hope. “Nagito.” You say. He looks up, and you notice there are pronounced dark circles under his eyes, you wonder how you didn’t notice before. “Can you just... Tell me what’s going on? _**I know**_ you’re acting different. You can try to hide it, but you’re not very good at it.”

Nagito takes a deep breath and smiles. “I guess I can tell you, Hajime.” you lean forward expectantly, your eyebrows raised. He puts up his hands, “I’m just a bit stressed out!” 

You sit back in your chair and keep yourself from groaning. You pull your chair closer to the table and pick up your chopsticks, if you can’t get Nagito to talk, you're at least going to eat something. You are about to take a bite when you realize he’s staring at you. You stop and look up at him, slightly annoyed. “You still want to sit with me?” he asks. 

“... Do you want me to leave?”

“No! Of course not, I was just surprised. After all, I’m just-”

“Nagito, stop. Just eat, okay?” 

He offers you the first genuine smile you’ve seen from him all day, and starts actually eating his rice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hajime finds out next chapter, if you prefer things to get straight to the point, then I apologize lmao


	3. Realizations of Frailty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagito finally tells Hajime a bit about what's really going on.

After dinner, Nagito informs you that he’s going to head back to his cottage for the night. He’s acting slightly more normal now (as normal as Nagito can get, that is) but you know there is definitely still something amiss. He retreats from the rest of the group without saying anything, quietly slipping out of the room unnoticed by everyone except you. 

You watch him leave, and try to ignore the twinge of your concern in your stomach. It’s fine, stop worrying about him. It’s not a good idea to get caught up with him. Unfortunately these thoughts do nothing to stop your worry. You look out the window of the restaurant just in time to see him turn the corner towards his cottage. 

A few people are saying their goodnights and heading back to their cottages, others are still hanging out together in the restaurant despite finishing their meals. Kazuichi and Gundham are sitting at a table bickering, though it doesn’t seem to be about anything serious. Gundham appears to be winning the argument and looks incredibly smug. 

Akane and Nekomaru stand on the balcony together, chatting enthusiastically about their plans for tomorrow. Everyone seems to be having a good time. It feels right, like everyones getting along for once. And even though you’re sure it won’t last, you allow yourself to indulge in it, at least for a little while. 

Chiaki invites you to play games with them for a while, teaching you a few useful strategies and cheats, but eventually they start having trouble keeping their head up. Every time they blink their eyes are closed for a progressively longer amount of time. You're afraid that they’re going to start drooling all over the screen. You walk them back to their cabin, making sure they get into bed and don’t just fall asleep on their feet. They mutter a sleepy goodnight once they’re under the blankets and offer a half hearted wave. You turn off their lights and shut the door softly behind you once you're outside. 

You say goodnight to a few people milling about outside the lobby,, and then head to your cottage. It was nice to have a day without the intervention of Monomi and Monokuma, though you know they’ll be back to bothering everyone soon enough. 

You arrive at your cabin just in time to hear the nighttime announcement. At this point you barely pay it any mind, it’s faded into the background of your routine. You kick off your shoes by the door and pull off your tie. Worrying all day proved to be an exhausting task.

You pull on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, and finally fall into your bed. Despite how much you hate being trapped on this island, you can still appreciate that this is the most comfortable mattress you’ve ever slept on. You sink down into it, pulling the blankets over you and shutting your eyes, if you’re lucky, you’ll be asleep for a long time. 

...

You lie there, listening to the sound of your air conditioner and waiting for sleep to hit you. The minutes tick by painfully slowly. You roll over to face the wall, maybe you’ll fall asleep easier if you’re not facing those god forsaken Monokumas. 

As you shut your eyes, your mind begins to wander towards Nagito. You hate how much you’ve been thinking about him all day, if he really is just stressed, he can deal with that himself. Just because he’s probably closest to you out of anyone on the island doesn’t mean he’s your responsibility. Maybe you would care about him more if he didn’t do and say so many horrible things. 

You flop onto your back and stare up at the sheer fabric of the canopy hanging over your bed. _**He’s not my responsibility. He’s NOT my responsibility.**_ You repeat it in your head over and over, maybe if you keep saying it it will finally put a stop to this aggravating train of thought. 

But even if he isn’t your responsibility, there’s still a part of you that cares about him, just a little bit, isn’t there? When you first arrived here, he was the only one who stuck around and waited for you to wake up while you were unconscious. He showed you around and filled you in on who everyone was. And for those first few days, it really did feel like he was your friend. 

Why did he have to go and ruin that? His all consuming obsession with hope, his fucked up moral code,, none of it makes any sense to you. You’ve never met someone who you so thoroughly don’t understand. 

If he ever was your friend, he’s not a good one. Friends don’t act like that. Friends don’t _**get friends killed.**_ Shut your eyes tight and attempt once again to put him out of your mind. But no matter how hard you try, you can’t. Your mind keeps coming back to him, speculating about what could be making him act so strange. About whether or not he’s planning something. 

You have to go check on him. You have to make sure he’s not going to do something dangerous. You are going to make him tell you the truth. You swing your legs over the bed and sit up. You never should’ve deluded yourself into thinking you’d be able to sleep, anyway. You don’t bother getting dressed, instead just slipping on your shoes and opening your door, heading out into the cool night air. 

You’re not sure how long you were trying to sleep, but no one is by the pool anymore. It seems like everyones gone to sleep. That’s probably a good thing, no one is around to question why the hell you’re going to Nagito’s cottage in the middle of the night. Then again, no one’s around to back you up if he’s planning something, either. 

You let out a puff of air and walk to Nagito’s cottage, the wood path creaking with every step. There’s a soft yellow light emanating from his window through the blinds. He has at least one light on. You approach his door and raise your fist to knock. Then you hesitate. 

You strain your ears, there’s an nearly inaudible sound coming from inside. You frown and shuffle a bit closer to the door. Then it hits you. Nagito is… Crying? Suddenly apprehensive, you glance around nervously. 

You’ve never seen him cry, you never thought you’d _**ever**_ see him cry. For all his self depreciation, he never came across as someone very emotional. At least not until he started acting strange. Even after everyone turned on him. Sure, he seemed disappointed that no one wanted to be around him, but other than that? Nothing. It seems like he’s constantly expecting people to hate him so much that it no longer affects him when it finally happens. 

You take a breath and force yourself to knock on the door. There’s silence from the other side and you shift uncomfortably while you wait for any sign that he’s going to answer. You almost don’t want him to, you expected to confront him about lying and make him tell you what he’s planning but this? You don’t know how to deal with this. 

You wait a moment that stretches for what feels like forever. Then you knock a second time. Nothing. 

“Nagito? I know you're awake. It’s Hajime, just open the door.” you purse your lips and look down at the ground. “... Please?” 

There’s a beat of silence and then quiet footsteps. You breathe a sigh of relief, rocking back and forth on your heels as you wait for him to open the door. The lock clicks and it slowly opens. Nagito stands just inside, his gaze is lowered, not looking you in the eye. 

He fidgets with the hem of his shirt, his free hand clasped into a first, rigid at his side. He’s wearing a pair of clover patterned pajama pants, which you might find amusing if you hadn’t just just caught him crying. His white hair is even more unruly than it is normally, sticking out in every possible direction 

“Nagito…” you say quietly, a bit incredulous. He seems so fragile right now. It feels strange. It feels like you’re not supposed to see this. 

He looks up, finally meeting your eyes. His cheeks are tear stained and flushed a bright pink, a drastic contrast between his usual ashen skin tone. “Hey, Hajime… Didn’t expect to see you at this hour, haha.” It’s clear he’s trying to mimic his typical light and optimistic tone, and makes a very weak attempt at a smile 

Your already distinct frown only deepens at his words. “I’m coming inside.” you say without even a second thought. 

Nagito’s eyebrows shoot up and he moves out of your way as you walk into his cottage. He shuts and locks the door behind you. His cottage is exactly the same as yours; the only difference being that instead of a horrible shelf of Monokuma figurines you were forced to hunt down, he has a bookshelf, which you think you prefer. 

After briefly scanning his cottage for anything out of the ordinary, you turn back to him. He’s still by the door, standing awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. He looks up when he sees you staring and rakes a hand through his hair. 

“Sorry for the mess, I’m usually good at cleaning but I guess I’ve been falling down on the job.” You glance around the room again, there is no mess. His voice is slightly scratchy. When you say nothing, he speaks again. “I don’t deserve to be in the presence of ultimates like you, I bet you’re all great at staying on top of things. You’re great at everything.” His tone lacks the usual enthusiasm it has when he says things like that. He seems to be putting himself down even more than normal.

You’re not going to get anywhere by telling him to just tell you what’s going on, that method’s already proven to be useless. Instead, you’ll have to start out small. “What are you doing up? Didn’t you go to bed hours ago?” you ask. You try not to sound accusatory, you know that’s not going to be helpful in any way.

“Ah,” he says quietly, his eyes swivel over to his bed, where his sheets are tangled at the foot. “I was asleep for a while, but then I woke up.” you continue to look at him, your eyes urging him to continue. “I had a nightmare, and I couldn’t fall asleep after that… But, hey, that’s bad luck! SOmething good is bound to happen after that.” He doesn’t sound all that confident.

“Do you have nightmares a lot?” 

Nagito opens his mouth, and then shuts again, his expression becoming more resigned. “Yeah, I suppose I do.” 

You nod slowly. Nagito seems to be trying very hard not to move around and fidget, subtly shifting his weight from foot to foot and keeping his hands still at his sides. You watch him for a few seconds and then speak up. “Nagito, I know that you were crying before I knocked on your door.” 

He looks like he’s about to lie, but then he stops, seeming to understand that it wouldn’t work at this point. Instead, he averts his eyes and remains silent. 

You sigh and sit down on the edge of his couch. It’s infuriating trying to understand him, especially when he just won’t give in and tell you what he’s thinking. He has so many walls built up, and even though he’s already knocked down a few of them for you, you don’t know how many more you’re going to be able to get through. Or even how many more there are left. 

He watches you for a moment and then walks over to his bed, slowly sitting down on the side of it. He fiddles with the drawstring of his pants. He swallows thickly. “I’ve been having trouble... Since we got here.” he says. 

You look up in surprise. He’s staring at his hands resting in his lap. “Trouble with what?” 

“Um,” his voice shakes slightly and he clears his throat. “Well, sometimes, when there’s too much going on, and I get stressed, this thing happens.” he looks at you, apparently hoping that you’ll just finish the sentence for him. 

You shake your head, your eyebrows furrowed. “Yeah...?” 

“When that happens, I feel... Like I’m younger than I am.” he wrings his hands. HIs voice is still trembling a little. If anything, it’s only gotten worse. 

You cock your head to the side. You think you're starting to get where this is going. You may not know a lot, but hearing about this sort of thing isn’t completely foreign to you. Still, you don’t want to jump to conclusions before you hear him out.

He sees your expression and continues reluctantly, “Before all this happened, I could just let myself feel like that for a while, you know? And then I’d feel better after.” he pauses. “But, um, with everything going on, I haven’t been able to do that. And I’m having trouble... Keeping myself from feeling that way.” He’s stopping every once in a while, seemingly trying to regain his composure. He sniffs quietly and wipes his nose with the back of his hand. “And it’s making everything feel a lot worse.” 

You don’t want to make him talk anymore. He’s upset. And you think you understand what he’s trying to say. In the back of your mind, a part of you starts feeling something you’d really rather not have for Nagito Komaeda. Sympathy. 

After everything he’s done to you, done to your _**friends,**_ you shouldn’t be feeling this way. He’s not a good person, you’re not even sure he’s an _**okay**_ person. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness or your friendship. And yet, here you are, standing up, and going to sit beside him on his bed.

He looks a bit surprised when you do that. You don’t make eye contact with him, instead just looking straight ahead. The two of you sit in silence. That is, until you see him put his head in his hands out of the corner of your eye. For a second, you don’t move, frozen in indecision. Then, you slowly reach out and put your hand on his shoulder. He’s shaking. 

This is foolish. He’s not someone to be sympathetic towards. “It’s alright.” You say gently. “You’re going to be alright.” 

He sobs quietly, then finally starts crying in earnest. His entire body is trembling. You feel like if you said the wrong thing he’d shatter. He pulls his knees close to his chest, crossing his arms over them and burying his face, muffling his cries. 

You scoot a bit closer to him and start rubbing his back. He’s skinnier than you thought he was, you can feel the ridges of his spine as your hand moves up and down. You’re going to have to keep an eye on him during meals and make sure he’s not just picking at his food. His fingernails are digging into his arms, creating small red semicircles in the pale skin. You might try to stop him from doing that if you weren’t so afraid of making him more upset. 

“I- I’m sorry,” Nagito manages to say through his tears. “YOu shouldn’t be forced to deal with trash like me.”

You purse your lips. “... No one’s forcing me to do anything. I’m here because this is where I decided to be, right? I came here of my own free will.” 

He shrugs, hiccuping and choking on a sob before burying his face further in his arms. You exhale quietly and reach over to the bottom of his bed, retrieving one of the blankets. You untangle it from the other sheets and then shake it out a bit before draping it over his shoulders. He lifts his head and grabs the corners of the blanket, tugging it tighter around him.

You’re a little lost. You were never that great at comforting people, especially when you didn’t really understand what they were going through. You hope you’re helping at least a little bit, even though you feel like you’re walking on eggshells. 

He scrubs at his puffy eyes with his palms and then bunches up the corners of the blanket, holding them so tightly that his knuckles turn white. As he cries, his breaths are ragged and shaky, each one seeming to take a lot of effort. 

Everything he’s doing right now is so painfully human. He has emotions, he gets upset. It seems obvious now that you’re confronted with it, of course he’s human. But it seems after everything that happened, it nearly slipped your mind. But he’s right here in front of you, needing someone to comfort him and make sure he’s okay. And even if you don’t like it, you’re the only one around to do it. 

You hesitantly put an arm around him. This is a stupid thing to do. You should know that. You’ve seen what he’s capable of. All of his strange and often dangerous tendencies combine to make an incredibly volatile and unpredictable person. But you’re still doing this. You think you must be some kind of idiot. 

Nagito's muscles stiffen for a moment, and then he relaxes again. He sniffs, and then leans against you. You're a little surprised. But what the hell did you expect him to do when you put your arm around him? You start rubbing small circles on his shoulder with your thumb. He leans on you a little heavier, sinking further against you. 

“I’m so tired.” he sobs, his breath hitching as he speaks. “I don’t even know what I’m tired _**of.**_ ”

You pull him a bit closer to you, nodding understandingly. “I know. But I’m right here, okay? You don’t have to be alone.” 

One of his hands is tightly gripping your shirt and you reach over, gently taking it and holding it instead. You’re probably going to regret doing everything you're doing right now later. But that’s then, and this is now. You can deal with the repercussions later. 

He grips your hand tightly in turn, holding on like it’s his lifeline. His skin is cold and clammy. But you don’t really care. Nothing that would normally matter to you seems to matter in this moment, because even if you don’t trust him, all you want to do is make him feel better.

He seems to be starting to calm down, his cries have slowly died down to occasional whimpers and hiccuping. He finally lets go of your hand, but stays leaning up against you. You watch him for a second, and then carefully push the hair out of his eyes. His eyes flash over to you, then he quickly averts them again. 

Nagito’s head is on your shoulder, his hair tickling your neck. You were right about the texture being weird, it kind of feels like the hair of a poodle. You don’t really know what to make of that. Neither of you say anything. Instead, you focus on the fact that you can feel his shaking slowly subsiding and his breath becoming more even. 

You’d expect any kind of silence with Nagito to be uncomfortable, but it isn’t. You don’t feel the need to fill it by saying something meaningless, you’re okay with just sitting with him. The two of you stay like that for a long time.

Eventually, he yawns into his hand and you glance down at him, his eyes are half lidded and he’s staring off into space. It hits you that you’re actually pretty exhausted yourself. You guess you’ve been distracted for a while now. 

“Do you wanna try going back to sleep?” you ask quietly. 

Nagito wipes at one of his eyes and nods. “Mhm...” he mumbles, sitting up and looking sleepily around the room. 

You stand and gesture for him to do the same. He does, swaying slightly once he’s on his feet but quickly steading himself. You grab the sheets from the foot of his bed, then hold out your arm to him. He reluctantly gives you the blanket he had around his and puts his hands in his pockets. You spread the top sheet out over his mattress, then the blanket and finally a thin duvet cover that was also tangled up in the pile. You smooth it all out and arrange his pillows into better positions. Once you're done fixing Nagito’s bed, you look over at him. He looks down at it, the corners of his mouth turning upwards just a little, almost unnoticeably. 

You pull back the sheets and he climbs into bed underneath them, allowing you to tuck them back up almost to his chin. He settles further in, looking like he could fall asleep any second. This is probably weird. If anyone was watching you right now, they would tell you that themselves. But it doesn’t feel that way. Tucking him in like this seemed like the most natural thing in the world when you did it. But you don’t want to dwell on it. At least not this late at night.

You switch off the lamp that sits beside the TV, leaving the room only to be illuminated by moonlight. “Goodnight, Nagito.” You say, turning towards the door. 

“Hajime,” he’s caught your hand before you can walk away, holding it tightly, his voice sounding panicked. You turn back to him, his eyes are wide and shiny as he stares up at you. “Can you… Sit with me? Just until I fall asleep... Please?”

The logical side of your brain is screaming at you to say no. Telling you that you’ve already gotten too close to the flame. That this is your chance to step back. You look down at him. “... Of course.”

You step back towards him, you’re about to sit down on the edge of the bed, but he moves over. You freeze for a moment, and then sit down beside him. He’s curled up beside you, just inches away, hugging a bunched up corner of his blanket to his chest like a kid would a stuffed animal. 

“Thanks.” HIs eyes slip closed. 

“No problem.” You find yourself replying.

You’re too tired to think. Instead, you sit beside him and absentmindedly watch the palm tree fronds in the distance outside his window sway in the breeze. His breathing gradually becomes deeper and slower. You think about how tomorrow, how you’ll go and eat breakfast with Nagito and all the others, and despite how big all of this felt to you, none of them will have any idea it transpired. They’ll go about their days, and you’ll spend yours thinking about everything you learned about him the night before. And trying to figure out how you feel about it all.

An indiscernible amount of time passes, and you glance down at Nagito to check if he’s sleeping. Surely enough, he is. His chest is slowly rising and falling and he’s still clinging to the blanket. 

His thumb is in his mouth.

You find yourself smiling. Even if this wasn’t what you were expecting to happen when you came here, you’re glad you made him feel better. You almost want to stick around, just in case he has another nightmare. 

You scowl and quickly scold yourself for thinking that sort of thing about someone like him, reminding yourself that just because he’s asleep and a bit vulnerable right now doesn’t mean he isn’t a threat to everyone’s safety. You shake your head to get rid of that train of thought, and slowly stand up, careful not to shift the mattress too much. 

You walk to the door, turning your head and looking back at him one more time before carefully opening it and stepping outside. You shut it behind you and let out a deep sigh. You’ll need to go over everything that just happened in the morning, when you don’t feel like you’re about to fall asleep on the ground just mere steps from your own room.

You trudge back to your cottage, your body feeling heavy and drained. You push open your door and kick off your shoes for the second time that night, not bothering to put them in a more neat position and walking to your bed. You throw back the sheets haphazardly and collapse onto it. The weight of the day hits you, and you fall asleep almost as soon as your head hits your pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof this one was difficult to write because Nagito never really expresses sadness in DR2. So hopefully this isn't too OOC. I went through this like a hundred times to make sure it flowed alright and I didn't see any glaring issues, I think it's the most I've ever proof read anything.


	4. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hajime talks to Nagito over breakfast, but it seems he's still not willing to completely open up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I realized that prior to this chapter I accidentally mentioned Fuyuhiko being around once or twice when he shouldn't be back from the hospital at this point yet. So I went back and removed that. I'm sorry if I get a little confused about the timeline of events in this fic, it's a little weird because I've added a couple extra regular island life days so that things don't move too quickly.

So, Nagito Komaeda is an age regressor. 

You never thought you’d think those words, but you guess you never thought you wouldn’t either. It never crossed your mind that this was a possibility. You’re lying in bed after the usual announcement, the morning light streaming in from the windows is hurting your worn out eyes. You squeeze them shut for a moment before forcing them back open to face the brightness again. 

You’re exhausted from last night. The last thing you want to do is get out of bed to go meet with the others. But you agreed to meet up every morning, and you don’t plan to disappoint them. You let out a puff of air before forcing yourself to get up and shuffle over to the bathroom. You stand under the hot spray of the shower for at least twenty minutes, shutting your eyes and facing towards the stream. Unfortunately, the hot water doesn’t wash away your fatigue. After finally getting out, you brush your teeth and get dressed for the day, lazily tying your shoes and heading out the door. 

You squint through the sun and glance around outside your cottage. You're heading out a bit later than usual after taking your sweet time, the only person you see also heading over to the restaurant now is Chiaki. 

You catch up to them as they draw near the pool. “Hey Hajime.” they say through a yawn. They’re holding onto the straps of their backpack as they walk, slow with sleepiness. 

“Hey,” you stretch, you're glad you’re not the only one who’s exhausted. Though Chiaki is always exhausted, so you guess that doesn’t say much.

“You’re looking tired, long night?” they ask groggily, wiping their eyes. 

You nod. “Yeah, I didn’t get a whole lot of rest. It took me a long time to fall asleep.” you decide not to give them the details, as much as you trust them, you doubt this is something Nagito wants out in the open. 

They hum quietly in acknowledgement and you spend the rest of the walk in silence, it seems both of you are too exhausted to make much conversation. 

It’s less hot than yesterday, but not by much. What you wouldn’t give for it to snow right now. You wipe your forehead with the back of your hand and glare up at the sky. But no amount of complaints or glares can compare to the true glory that is air conditioning, and you're almost to the restaurant, where you can bask in it all you want. 

You step into the hotel lobby and breathe in the cool air, allowing it to wash over it as you stand in front of the door. Chiaki looks longingly at the games, but they drag themselves away, up the stairs. You follow close behind, finding that even climbing the steps is tiring when you're this worn out. You reach the top and are immediately accosted by Kazuichi.

“Ooh, Hajime! Walkin’ in in the morning with Chiaki, eh? You look exhausted, what have you been up to?” he demands. 

You blink at him. “Uh, what?”

“Kazuichi! I gentleman does not kiss and tell!” Sonia scolds, her arms crossed in disdain.

“Yes, of course Miss Sonia! I’m so sorry!” Kazuichi shrinks back, retreating to go cower at a table beside Nekomaru and Akane.

You glance over at Chiaki, who appears to have missed that entire interaction despite standing just a few feet away from you. They rub their eyes and head over to the tables to get themselves a plate of food. You survey the room. Everything appears to be normal, that's good. Then your eyes settle on the corner. Nagito is sitting there, staring at you. You make eye contact with him and he quickly averts his gaze, looking back down at the table in front of him. He doesn’t have any food with him. 

You frown, walking over to the buffet and grabbing two plates. You stack them each high with food, then grab two bowls of rice. You’re struggling to hold everything at this point but you continue on, grabbing two pairs of chopsticks. You walk over to Nagito’s empty table and put a plate and a bowl down in front of him, shoving the chopsticks into his hand. He looks up at you in confusion, but you don’t pay him any mind. You set down the other two dishes in front of the seat beside him, pull out the chair, and sit down. 

You glance over your shoulder behind you. A few people are casting curious and slightly concerned looks your way, but otherwise they don’t seem very interested in what you’re doing. Nagito glances from the chopsticks in his hand, to his plate, and back over to you. He opens his mouth to speak. This time you’re going to stop him before he can start.

“No, Nagito, eat. No questions, no self deprecating comments.” you tell him. 

He watches you for a moment as you start eating your food, then looks down and quietly gets to work on his own plate. As you do that, you look at the rest of the room one more time. It seems everyone’s still getting along for now, Chiaki’s settled at a table with Sonia, and the two are discussing a horror game Chiaki’s a fan of. It’s nice that those two seem to be becoming friends, maybe Chiaki can offer a respite from Kazuichi’s incessant flirting. 

You turn back to the table and find Nagito looking at you, only for him to stop as soon as you notice once again. You bite your lip. Should you talk to him about last night? You don’t think he was in his usual state of mind when all that happened, so it’d probably be best to talk to him about it now that he seems more like himself. 

But then again, knowing him he’ll probably brush it off. Just like he has with every serious thing that's happened. He does seem less upset than yesterday. Now that you’ve actually gotten him something, he’s eating, and he isn’t giving off an energy that makes you worry what he’s going to do next anymore. Though perhaps that’s just because you know what’s going on now. 

This is going to be an uncomfortable conversation. You take a deep breath and force out the words you know you’re going to have to say sooner or later. “Nagito, about last night…” 

He looks up from his plate and smiles brightly. “If you’re worried about me, there’s no need for it!” 

You offer him a deadpan expression, does he really expect you to _believe_ that? After everything he confessed to you… He expects you not to be concerned? “You were really upset.” 

He puts up his hands like it’s all completely inconsequential. “It’s no big deal. I shouldn’t have bothered you with my problems anyway. You really shouldn’t take anything I said to you yesterday too seriously, it’ll only make things more troublesome for both of us.” at that, the conversation seems to be over. He continues to eat and looks like he’s not going to say much more on the matter even if you press him on it. You expected him to say something like that, of course. But it still worries you to hear out loud.

You shouldn’t care anyway. If he wants to ignore his issues, more power to him. That just means there’s less for you to have to deal with. Even if the fact that he denies that anything he said last night holds any weight infuriates you, and makes you want to shake him until he shows even a speck of genuine emotion, it’s not your concern. You’ll leave him to stew in his problems.

Soon breakfast draws to a close. Nagito wanders off to go do god knows what, and with nothing better to do, you tag along with some of the others to the beach. 

Akane and Nekomaru are already there when you arrive, apparently they left breakfast early for some morning wrestling. You make the wise decision to sit a good ways away from them, hoping to avoid getting all the sand they’re kicking up into your eyes. Kazuichi sits down beside you, leaning back on his palms with a toothy smirk that makes you a little nervous. 

His eyes scan the beach, wide with excitement at the prospect of being around so many scantily clad girls, and you barely hold back an exasperated groan. He’s your friend, and you enjoy being around him (usually) but he can be a bit much for anyone who spends too much time around him. You don’t blame Sonia for not being terribly interested in him. Even if he’s a good guy, his brain goes right out of his skull as soon as she's in his vicinity. 

He sighs contentedly, moving his arm in a sweeping gesture. “Take it in, Hajime.” 

You look around the shore, and find yourself marginally less interested than he probably is. It’s not that the girls around you aren’t attractive, of course they are. But they’re also your friends, just as much as he is, and you're not about to start ogling Kazuichi. You give him a skeptical look and he snickers, turning his attention to Sonia. 

Hiyoko and Mikan are in the shallows, Mikan cowering while Hiyoko splashes her with as much water as she can with the full force of her short arms. You wish Mahiru was here to reign her in, you think she was the only one who was, and perhaps ever will be capable of doing so. Sonia has somehow coaxed Chiaki into joining her in the water, and the two are chatting together. While that’s happening, Gundham is constructing a sand sculpture of a creature you don’t recognize. You’re not even sure it’s an actual animal that exists. A smile tugs at your lips as you watch your friends having a good time together. 

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Kazuichi asks, taking on a more serious expression once he’s dragged his eyes away from the girls.

“Uh, yeah, I guess so.” 

“So, you’ve been hanging around Nagito a lot over the past few days. What’s up with that? I mean, the guy’s totally crazy! I couldn’t handle him for more than a few minutes. Being around him at meals is enough for a lifetime.” 

You find yourself cringing. He’s not wrong, you can’t deny that the things Nagito has done in the short time you’ve been here have not earned him the reputation of someone who’s mentally stable. You know that as well as everyone else here. But you don’t exactly feel good about outright insulting him. “Someone needs to keep an eye on him, right? If I’m not the one doing it, I’m not confident anyone else will.” 

He shrugs. “I guess that’s true, I know I wouldn’t. He does seem to prefer being around you than any of us, though. But maybe that’s just because you’re the one who’s least likely to be weird to him since you’re probably the least phased by all his bullshit.”

You stare off at the horizon while you mull that over. The only conclusion you come to is that you’ve been thinking about Nagito far too much today. “Maybe. But I still don’t understand him.” 

“Man, I don’t think any of us ever will. Don’t even bother, you’re gonna give yourself some sorta brain damage.” he laughs. He stretches his arms above his head and groans. “Well, I’m gonna go get in the water, you comin’?”

“Nah, I’m not really feeling it right now. You go ahead, I might come in a little while.” 

“Suit yourself, dude!” he hops to his feet and runs off towards the water, waving enthusiastically to Sonia, who doesn’t appear to notice him.

You roll your eyes as you watch him, then lie on your back in the sand. You partially shield your eyes from the sun with your arm and stare up at the clouds. They move across the sky slowly, swirling and shifting as they do. It makes you feel less stressed, if only for a little while. 

Maybe he’s right, maybe Nagito is a puzzle that’s not worth solving. And yet you're still drawn to him. Even if you’ll never truly figure him out, you can’t deny you’re not still tempted to try. You already know some things about him, probably more than anyone else here. No, _definitely_ more than anyone else here. Even if you’ve barely scratched the surface, and you don’t think anyone else has even tried. 

And even if it’s the most asinine thing you’ve ever done, you’re going to keep trying to understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one wasn't super long because it's more just me establishing stuff. I kinda feel like I repeated some words a little too much but I wasn't sure how to fix it so I apologize if you noticed and it broke immersion or anything I'm gonna keep better watch for that as I continue this.


	5. Loud Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ibuki wants to cheer everyone up, but things don't go exactly as planned.

The next day passes in a blur. It was so hectic that you felt like you barely got through it. Your room got broken into by Ibuki, then Fuyuhiko came back only to immediately have to be rushed back to the hospital after splitting his own stomach. After all that you forced yourself to be social and spent time with Chiaki, playing games in the hotel lobby. Everything went by so quickly that you almost completely forgot about the Nagito of it all. Almost.

Now that you're alone in your room, all your annoying thoughts are back in full swing. You scrub your face rigorously and groan in frustration. Why can’t you put all this out of your head? You found out his secret and now you can’t stop worrying about him and what he might do next… If you could just put a stop to this you would in an instant. Unfortunately, you’re human. And humans don’t work like that. 

Maybe you’ll just try to shut off your brain as best you can and get some sleep. Maybe tomorrow will be less crazy. But in truth you know that’s not going to happen. That’d be too good to be true. You’ve gone too many days now without anything completely horrible happening, now that something has happened, it can only get worse from here. 

You almost jump out of your skin when your doorbell rings throughout the room. You turn on your heel towards the door, staring at it in annoyance. Maybe if you just stay quiet, they’ll go away. But of course, that’s not what happens. Your doorbell rings a few more times in quick succession, forming a kind of rhythm. You sigh. Ibuki again, you’re sure of it. You reluctantly walk to the door and open it, you're greeted with Ibuki’s bright smile, which greatly contrasts your look of annoyance.

“Hellooooo Hajime!” she says excitedly, practically jumping up and down. “You sure were slow to come to the door, don’t tell me you were already asleep!”

“I wasn’t. What do you want?” 

“Well, it seems that an invitation was sent out to everyone.” she offers you a slip of paper.

_**Invitation Ticket 9:00 PM at “Titty Typhoon” Party for Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu’s Recovery** _

You blink, staring down at the words in front of you. The colors are so saturated it almost hurts your eyes. There’s no way Ibuki didn’t make this. Your brow furrows. “A recovery party for Fuyuhiko?”

“Yup! That is what it seems to be!”

Your eyes narrow. “You made this.”

Ibuki shuffles nervously. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger! Ibuki is just bringing it to you…” You roll your eyes, but she ignores it. “Well then, Ibuki has some preparations so I’ll go on ahead! I’ll leave the rest to you!”

Ibuki turns around and disappears as quickly as she arrived. Of course your day couldn’t just end here. You couldn’t just go to sleep, no, that would be too pleasant. Your eyes scan the invitation one more time and you groan. Thirty minutes until it starts. Is Fuyuhiko really going to be able to come to this? He only hurt himself this morning… Either way, it seems like Ibuki has good intentions in throwing this thing, so you better get going. At least you hadn’t changed to go to sleep yet. 

You head out the door and start towards the third island. You breathe in the night air as you walk. You much prefer the island at this time, it’s not too hot, and it feels like there’s less to worry about somehow. The stars are shining brightly above you, and you steal a glance every now and then. You could never see this many back home. But there’s barely any light pollution here, and they go on forever. Every once in a while you feel a breeze from the ocean rush over you. Under any other circumstances, this would be a perfect place to stay for a while.

You don’t run into anyone on your way there. Maybe you were the last one Ibuki told and everyone else already headed over. Whatever the case may be, it isn’t terrible to be alone for a little while on such a nice night, even if you originally intended to be asleep by now. You can’t see the stars as clearly on the third island, all the lights make the sky seem like a murky purple color, obscuring quite a few of them. 

You reach Titty Typhoon and find Nagito and Gundham standing outside. You feel your stomach clench slightly at the sight of him. What is your problem? You almost want to walk right past him into the club, but you can’t seem to bring yourself to do that.

You approach him, he looks a little strange, standing there all by himself. Out of place. “Hey, Nagito. Ibuki invited you too, huh?”

“Yep. I’m honored. But since everybody else is also going to be there celebrating Fuyuhiko’s recovery… No matter what, I think it's too rude for someone like me to go inside before everyone else arrives…” he looks away sheepishly. 

Great, there he goes again. He notices your slightly exasperated expression and speaks again. “Ah, you don’t have to worry about me. You can go inside first.” 

You cross your arms. “Nobody cares if you go inside before them. Let’s just go.” you beckon him to follow you.

He puts up his hands. “It’s really okay, I don’t mind waiting. You should go on ahead and start having fun with all the other ultimates.”

“I’m not just gonna let you stand out here and wait for who knows how long, come on.” you look at him, your eyebrows raised expectantly. 

He swallows and glances behind you at the building. Is there some other reason he doesn’t want to go in? He masks any nervousness he might’ve been showing previously with a bright smile. “If you really think it’s alright, Hajime. I can’t say no to you.”

What the hell does that mean? You shake your head slightly. No, if you start trying to dissect everything he says you’ll never know peace. 

You lead him to the building and swing open the door, stepping inside with him on your heels. The inside is just as weirdly empty as it was when you first explored this island, the only thing filling the empty space is the people who’ve already arrived.

Your eyes go wide when you see one particular person standing amongst the others. “F- Fuyuhiko?” you ask, stunned. You rush over to him and the others, Nagito following. Sure, this is his recovery party, but… “Is it really okay for you to be here?”

“It’s fine. Nothing I can’t handle.” he scoffs, averting his eyes from your concerned expression.

“There’s no way it’s safe for you to be doing this! You’re seriously injured!” Mikan squeals, hovering over him, clearly unsure of what to do.

“They took the time to throw a party for me… There’s no way I wouldn’t come.”

“I understand how you feel, but p- please just don’t over exert yourself… Even moving around like this should be too much.” 

Nekomaru rolls his eyes. “Just let him do whatever he wants, he’s too stubborn to let you convince him otherwise! Seems like Yakuza have pain tolerance down to an art.”

Fuyuhiko says nothing, looking away from the rest of us. You can’t believe he dragged himself out of bed for this, he must really be trying hard to turn over a new leaf and win back everyone's trust. You just hope he doesn’t try so hard that he hurts himself in the process.

Nagito steps forward, joining the group. He still looks a bit nervous, but it seems he’s becoming more comfortable now that everyone’s talking. Still, you wonder why he’s acting like this. “It looks like Hiyoko isn’t going to be joining us.” he says, casting a glance towards the doors of the venue.

“It seems so…” Gundam comments, looks like they came in after you and Nagito and joined the group without you noticing. 

“Hey, Akane’s not here either.” Chiaki tilts their head to the side, they seem a little concerned. Akane has been acting out lately, you hope she’s alright. Maybe she’s just late… 

Nekomaru seems to share your concerns, he frowns, worry distorting his features. “Wh- What is that wild woman off doing? I hope she isn’t planning to do anything strange…”

As if on cue, once Nekomaru finished speaking, the stage lit up with an orange glow, all the lights pointing to the center and highlighting the main event. Ibuki stands in front of the mic with an electric guitar in hand. She’s radiating excitement, and everyone faces forward to watch whatever comes next.

“Heeeey y’all! It’s Ibuki Mioda! Thanks for coming out today!” you see peoples faces light up with smiles matching hers, and you can’t help but do the same. “My specialty is making beef stew! Haha, I may not look like it but people tell me I’m the nurturing type! So I’m gonna do my very best performance so I can make everyone feel better. I hope you’re all pumped up!”

Of course, she’s trying to raise everyone’s spirits. You complained when she stopped by your cottage with the invitation, but it really seems like she’s trying her hardest to make you all happy. And you can’t bring yourself to be annoyed with her for that. 

“Alright! I’ll start singing this first song with full on energy! So put your hands together for ‘From Me to You Too’!” She exclaims, situating her guitar more comfortably in her arms. She started off in an all girls band that dominated the music charts. You have high hopes for her performance, someone titled the Ultimate Musician must have something amazing in store.

Ibuki clears her throat and steps forward towards the mic. She opens her mouth. And screams. Everyone in the crowd jumps back, startled by the sudden noise, but then you’re all forced to get used to it fast, as her song seems to be about 70% screaming. You glance around at your friends, and they all seem about as surprised as you. Kazuichi stands nearby with a horrified expression plastered on his face, staring up at the stage with his mouth hanging open, while Gundham stands a few feet behind him, seemingly trying to shield the ears of his Dark Devas from Ibuki’s screeches and the overwhelming sound of her guitar. In contrast, she seems to be having a great time on stage. 

Chiaki stares wide eyed at the stage, and seems determined not to flinch or look like they want to hightail it the hell out of there like the others do. You try to mimic their expression. It’s not like you want to hurt Ibuki’s feelings, she’s your friend and a great person to be around… But this music, it might just break you. You can’t imagine how she had any fans at all back home. 

You hear a small noise that’s almost completely masked by the sounds Ibuki is creating, and you turn around to find the source. Hiyoko is slipping in through the doors, and casually joins the crowd like she’s been there the whole time. You’re glad she decided to show up, even if she is late. Maybe she really is trying. 

You expect her to look disgusted, maybe even heckle Ibuki while she pours her heart out on stage. But neither of those things happen. Hiyoko’s eyes light up, and her lips spread into the biggest smile you’ve ever seen from her. She looks absolutely delighted to be witnessing this performance first hand. You’re glad at least one person seems to be enjoying themselves. 

You scan the rest of the crowd, everyone seems to be having similar reactions to Kazuichi, but then your eyes settle on Nagito. He’s staring blankly up at the stage, his eyes wide and his fists clenched tightly at his sides. You’re not sure he’s actually looking at Ibuki, or really anything on the stage for that matter. It seems more like he’s just looking through everything in front of him. You take a look around to see if anyone else has noticed his odd behavior, but everyone else seems too focused on Ibuki, like they're looking at a car crash. 

Nagito starts to take a few steps back, looking like he’s trying to retreat without actually registering what he’s doing, and bumps right into Hiyoko. He whirls around with a start to face her, looking shocked, as if he completely forgot that he was around other people he could possibly run into. 

You’re standing just close enough to hear what she says. “Ugh! Is your brain fried or something? Watch where you're going, creep!” Nagito holds up his hands in an apologetic gesture and steps back, but says nothing in return. “You’re not even going to apologize? What the hell is your problem!” 

This is definitely not normal for Nagito. If he made this kind of mistake any other time, he’d probably be making some self deprecating comment and apologizing profusely. What's going on? Whatever it is, nobody else seems to have noticed, and you think you need to stop it before it gets any worse. 

You make your way through the crowd, dodging between your friends and trying your best not to step on anyone's feet. You finally reach the two of them and step beside Nagito.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean to bump into you, Hiyoko. Just let it go.” 

She crosses her arms sulkily. “He could at least say he’s sorry.” she grumbles. 

You look over at him, he appears rather shell shocked, and doesn’t seem to be processing much of what either of you are saying. He meets your eyes once he realizes you're looking at him, and swallows nervously. “He’ll apologize later, I need him for something right now.”

Hiyoko scoffs and walks away haughtily to get closer to the stage. “Whatever, Just get him out of my face!” she huffs. 

You don’t have time to be annoyed with her right now, you’re much too preoccupied with figuring out what’s going on with Nagito. He stands beside you stiffly, staring at the ground and trembling slightly. 

“Come on,” you say quietly. You put a hand on his back and maneuver him out of the crowd, and towards the door. You open it for him and gesture for him to go ahead, and he does after a moment of processing your request, moving on shaky legs. You step outside shortly after him, allowing the door to swing shut behind you. He stands there silently, staring ahead, his shoulders seem to have relaxed slightly since getting out here, so that’s something, at least. You gently lead him over to the wall of the building and sit down, leaning against it. He stands there for a moment, looking at you, before slowly sitting down beside you.

He pulls his legs up to his chest and wraps his arms around them, staring at the horizon from over his knees. You sit there quietly, tracing a pattern in the dust on the ground next to you. You hope it’s at least a little better for him out here, even though you don’t really know what’s happening. You wouldn’t want to make things worse. 

“Nagito, what happened in there? A- are you okay…?” You reach out and almost touch his shoulder, but then you take your hand back and force yourself to rest it in your lap. 

Nagito shifts and tugs his legs in closer. “Loud.” he says softly, his voice barely above a whisper. Right, you think you remember him saying something about not liking loud places. But you didn’t realize it had this much of an affect on him… 

“Oh.” you observe him for a moment, and then think about the way he was acting inside the venue. “Sensory overload?” you ask. He nods. You’ve never experienced it yourself, but you know enough about it that you’re able to recognize the more obvious signs. You’re glad you stepped in and got him out when you did, who knows how long Hiyoko could’ve kept yelling. He fidgets with the seam of his jeans. _Oh, you’re an idiot._ You almost hit yourself upside the head for not realizing it sooner, and speak again. “Nagito… Are you regressed right now?” He hesitates, going still for a second. And then nods again

Of course that’s part of what’s happening. You should’ve known. He probably got overwhelmed and stressed out by all the noise and regressed because of it. Despite being around him while he was like this once before, you’re still not sure how to handle it. You don’t have any younger siblings, not even any younger cousins. You never had to look after a kid, let alone a teenage boy in the headspace of one. You don’t say anything for a little while, and then say something that probably makes you seem like a total idiot.

“Do you wanna hold my hand?” you cringe as soon as the words leave your mouth. Why do you have to act like this? You’re already holding out your hand to him. You’re going to drown in your own embarrassment. He looks down at your outstretched hand, and then reaches out, taking it and lacing his fingers with yours. 

You can still hear Ibuki’s muffled music through the thick brick walls, but it’s much less suffocating now. You feel bad for everyone else who's still inside. You look down at your hands and try to convince yourself it’s not a big deal. It’s not like you’re just _holding hands with Nagito Komaeda,_ you’re holding hands with him while he currently feels like a child. You’d never hold hands with him when he felt like himself, if you did, you’d probably never hear the end of it, from him or your own brain. He pisses you off to no end, but you can’t just do nothing right now. 

“... M’sorry.” he mumbles. You can feel his hand shaking. 

You frown and look over at him. “What are you sorry for?”

“I ruined the show.” he sniffs, looking genuinely guilty. “I ruin everything…” It’s still strange to see him express this much emotion. 

You laugh softly and he raises his head a little to look at you. “You didn’t ruin anything. Ibuki is… Well, her music isn’t really for me. You made it so I didn’t have to sit through the whole thing, so I should really be thanking you.” That makes him smile. “And… I’m sorry I made you go in. I thought there might be some other reason you didn’t want to but I didn’t think it through enough.” 

“It’s okay.” He seems to be starting to relax more. He puts his legs down and starts playing with the zipper of his jacket.

He’s so sensitive like this… Even if he’s normally infuriating and completely incomprehensible to you, you can’t fuck this up. You need to be careful and make sure you don’t upset him. Even if you have zero experience, you can figure this out. At least, you think you can. 

Your thoughts on the matter are interrupted as Nekomaru bursts out of the venue, Nagito flinches at the sound of the doors hitting the outside wall and grips your hand tighter. Monomi follows close behind him. _How the fuck did she get in there without us seeing her?_ You look up at Nekomaru from the ground, so startled that you don’t even let go of Nagito’s hand in the presence of other people. Thankfully he either doesn’t notice or maybe just doesn’t care. He only spares you a brief glance before taking off in a full on sprint towards the bridge. You look to Monomi for an explanation. 

“Akane is dueling Monokuma on the first beach!” she explains nervously, jumping from foot to foot. “Everyone needs to get over there and save her!” She runs off after Nekomaru, and soon after everyone else pours out of the venue in a disorderly mass, and runs off in the same direction. 

You let go of Nagito’s hand and spring to your feet, you watch the others fade into the distance and then freeze. You can’t leave Nagito here, not like this. You turn towards him. He looks panicked as he stares off after everyone. “Hey, Nagito,” you say, catching his attention. He looks up at you with wide eyes. “It’s gonna be fine, you just stick with me and we’ll go check it out, okay?” His expression becomes a little calmer and he nods, standing up a little clumsily. You hesitate momentarily before reaching out and taking his hand again, holding it tightly. “Come on, we’re gonna walk really fast.” 

You lead him down the cracked and dusty road towards the bridge, walking as quickly as you can without having your pace turn into a full on sprint. You think running would only make him more anxious, and you need to keep him as calm as possible right now. You mask your own nervousness as best you can, you need Akane to be okay, you don’t know what you’ll do if anyone else dies on this island. 

Night time doesn’t feel so safe anymore. Dread is slowly seeping into every part of your body, growing greater and greater the closer you get to the beach. You force yourself to keep your breath steady and keep moving. The faster you can get to Akane, the faster you can make sure everything is okay.

Most of the trip passes without you even noticing, too lost in your thoughts to concentrate on your movements. You only break out of your thoughts when you're most of the way across the bridge to the first island, and see Chiaki on the other side in the distance. You glance at Nagito and then back over at Chiaki. They’re facing away from you, and apparently haven’t noticed you yet. They are absolutely going to be suspicious if they see you holding hands with Nagito. 

You turn towards him. “I’m going to let go of your hand for a minute, is that okay?” 

“... Ahuh.” he says, his voice unsteady. He allows you to let go and you manage to give him an encouraging smile, even though you don’t feel all that confident yourself.

You hold in a sigh of relief. If Chiaki saw, they’d ask questions, and even if you don’t like him very much, you don’t want to be the reason his secret gets out. “Stay close to me.” you tell him as you start walking again. You soon reach Chiaki at the end of the bridge. “Hey Chiaki! What are you doing!? We gotta get to the beach…” 

“Calm down.” They say. “It’s true we need to hurry, but there’s no way you can make good decisions if you're so worked up.” They look at you, resolute and firm.

You look at Nagito over your shoulder, making eye contact with him. He’s looking at you with so much trust... “You’re right. I’m okay.” 

They follow your eyes towards him and glance back at you with a slightly confused look. “Then… Let’s go.” they say, turning and quickly heading for the beach. You breathe a sigh of relief, thankful that they didn’t ask any questions about him. 

You watch them until they’re out of earshot. This is it. Whether you like it or not, what’s happening right now could be life or death. You shut your eyes tightly before reopening them and forcing yourself to focus on the task at hand. You turn to Nagito. “Ready?” 

He nods, and the two of you head towards the beach to face whatever might come next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to figure out how much is okay to skip. I don't really feel that it's necessary to recount all the canon events that take place in this fic, we all know what happens I don't really need to tell you about it. So I'm just trying to figure out how to skip over events that aren't affected by the premise of this fic in a way that doesn't feel out of place. So things may be a little clunky in that respect while I figure that out. 
> 
> Regardless of all that, I'm really thankful for everyone whose been reading this fic, because I've been enjoying writing it. I hope you're all doing well!


	6. Reassurance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night is drawing to a close, but Hajime wants to make sure Nagito is okay.

It doesn’t feel like you’re really here. Maybe you’re sleeping, maybe all this is just a dream. You really hope that it is. Nekomaru saved Akane’s life. And now he’s gone. He was rushed off in an ambulance, and immediately after it faded off into the distance, the group was consumed in an argument that ended with Hiyoko storming off in tears. You wonder if she really meant everything she said, about not trusting anyone, about having friends making you weak. You really thought she was going to change… 

The oppressive weight of everything that’s happened tonight is hanging over the group like a storm cloud. It seems everyones run out of things to say that wouldn’t be meaningless attempts at levity. Nobody looks anyone else in the eye. Slowly, one by one, everyone else begins to leave the beach, heading back to their cottages. There’s no point in them staying here any longer, all there is to do now is sleep, and hope things are somehow better in the morning. 

All this time, Nagito has been standing beside you, he’s been so silent you almost forgot he was there. You turn to him, and find him shaking, staring off in the direction the ambulance went.. _Fuck,_ you should’ve been paying more attention. He’s so vulnerable right now, he must be terrified. The two of you are the only ones left at the beach now, the only sound is the waves crashing onto the shore and his shallow breathing. 

You reach out and hesitantly place your hand on his shoulder. He turns his head to look at you, a little startled by your touch. His eyes are wide and brimming with fear. “N- Nekomaru…?” he whimpers.

“He’s gonna be okay.” you fill your voice with as much conviction as you can muster and try to sound calm, you don’t entirely believe it yourself, but that doesn’t matter right now. “Fuyuhiko came back, right? Then… So will Nekomaru.” If you didn’t have someone else to worry about, there’s no way you’d be this relaxed. In truth, you’re angry. Not at Akane or Nekomaru; but at this entire situation. None of this ever had to happen. No one is to blame but Monokuma. You take a deep breath, right now, there’s nothing you can do about that. 

Nagito sniffs and looks over at the spot where Nekomaru was previously lying, where his blood has stained the sand, and then looks back over to you. He gives a short nod. He may not be completely convinced, but it’ll have to do for now. 

If he was feeling normal, you have no doubt that he’d be saying something about how this is just an opportunity to overcome despair and reach greater hope. But right now, he just seems scared.

“Come on, let's go back to the hotel.” you take his hand, squeezing it gently before leading him towards the road. He stays close to you as you walk, his movements unsteady. 

You need to be right about this. You need Nekomaru to come back safe. You’re not sure how much more the group can take before they break apart from stress and misery. The now familiar feeling of loss has begun to settle within you, and you have to remind yourself that Nekomaru isn’t gone, at least not yet. You focus on convincing yourself of that until you finally arrive back at the hotel. Once you're inside the gates you glance around, it seems everyone’s already gone back to their rooms. You’re sure they all want this day to end as soon as possible. 

You decide to take Nagito back to his cottage. It still feels strange, looking after him like this. You aren’t exactly on good terms under normal circumstances, though you suppose you do understand him better than you did just last week, which has made things simultaneously more _and_ less tense between the two of you. You’re certain he didn’t intend for you to find out about this, he only told you because you caught him at a bad time, after all. And he doesn’t seem to have any intention of having a real conversation about this when he isn’t regressed. Eventually, you’ll have to talk about it.

Once you reach his door, he takes out his key and fumbles to unlock it, looking on the verge of tears when he has trouble getting it into the keyhole. “Hey,” you say softly, carefully taking the key from his hands. “It’s alright, I'll do it, don’t be upset...” 

You unlock and open the door and the two of you step inside. You glance around the room; It’s the same as it was the other day. Despite arriving at your destination, Nagito is still tightly gripping your hand as if you’ll disappear if he lets go. You’re not sure where to go from here, you didn’t think much about what you were going to do beyond getting him back to his cottage. He’s nervously biting at the tip of his thumb and looking at the floor. 

It’s probably best to get him to bed. You want this day to end as soon as possible, and you’re sure he does as well. “Do you wanna get changed so you can sleep?” you ask, gently untangling your fingers from his. 

“Ahuh…” he mumbles, turning his attention to his dresser. He walks over to it and opens up the middle drawer, rummaging through it until he finds something that catches his eye. He then anxiously looks back over at you.

You just stand there for a moment before realizing he’s waiting for you to tell him what to do next. “Oh, uh, why don’t you get dressed in the bathroom?” 

He nods and walks over to it, shutting the door behind him. 

You could’ve just dropped him off here and left, why didn’t you do that? He isn’t your responsibility, so why does it feel like it would be so wrong not to help him further? You shake your head in frustration and decide to try and occupy yourself while you wait for him. 

You wander over to his bookshelf and trail your fingers absentmindedly over the spines. The books here all seem so random, you can’t discern why he would choose to bring any of these back to his cabin. None of them seem relevant to him at all. That is, until you find one hidden among the others that seems familiar. You frown and pull it out from its place, turning it over in your hands to look at the cover. It’s a children's book. You remember reading this a long time ago…

It’s about two kids wandering into a seemingly abandoned castle in the woods that turns out to be inhabited by a group of cats holding a gala. You find yourself smiling a little as you flip through the pages. The illustrations are brightly colored and cute, just how you remember them being. 

Nagito steps out of the bathroom, holding his old clothes in a disorganized bunch close to his chest. He sees what you're holding and his eyes fill with fear. “Uh,” you say, closing the book. He looks like he thinks you’re about to start ruthlessly mocking him. “I- I really liked this book as a kid… You have good taste.” 

He stands completely still for a moment, and then his shoulders relax, his expression softening. He drops his dirty clothes in a hamper beside the bathroom door and walks over to you. He takes the book and flips to page with an illustration of cats slow dancing in pairs, getting to it immediately like he’s done it a thousand times. He points to a cat who’s wearing a purple tuxedo and a tophat. 

“You like him best?” you ask, to which he nods. You think about it for a moment before you flip to another page further on, and point out a cat in a sparkly blue ball gown and tiara. “I think I remember liking this one.” 

He smiles and leans against you, his head on your shoulder.. “She’s pretty.” he says quietly, and yawns. You put your arm around him, rubbing his back while you look down at the illustration. You’re happy to be somewhere quiet. This night has been so hectic and awful, but things don’t seem quite as terrible as you stand here with Nagito. It feels… Safe.

You think you’ve gotten his mind off Nekomaru a little bit, hopefully you can keep it that way. “Ready for bed?” 

“Yeah,” he hands you the book and you place it back in its spot on the shelf. He’s much easier to read now than he normally is, you don’t sense any sort of confusing intent behind his actions, you don’t feel like you have to constantly be on guard. He walks over to his bed and pulls back the covers, climbing in underneath them. You go around and start turning off all the lights. “Hajime?” you turn around and look over at him. “Leave one on...?” 

“Sure.” You switch the light on the table beside his TV back on with a soft click, and he looks visibly relieved. The room is filled with soft yellow light and the barely noticeable sounds of the air conditioning. He shifts deeper into the mattress, his eyelids heavy with sleep. You look over at the door, you should go, but leaving him alone right now, after everything that’s happened, it still doesn’t feel right. Instead, even though part of you is begging you to just go, you walk over and sit down on the edge of his bed. He hums and reaches out, putting his hand in yours. 

What you’re doing is dangerous. Looking out for him, making sure he’s okay… Spending time with him even when he doesn’t need someone around, if you keep this up you’re eventually going to _become his friend._ And based on everything you’ve seen him do, that seems like an incredibly foolish undertaking. But ever since you found out about this, he hasn’t seemed as mysterious or threatening. Of course, this doesn’t excuse or even explain any of his actions. But maybe getting to know him a bit better has taken the edge off. Made him feel more human. 

You gently run your thumb over the back of his hand, staring down at the movement while you begin to realize how tired you are yourself. Nagito looks on the edge of falling asleep, but he speaks up. “Nekomaru’s gonna come back?” he asks, his speech slightly slurred by sleepiness. 

“Yeah, he’ll come back.” 

“Like Fuyuhiko…?” he mumbles, slipping his thumb into his mouth. 

“Like Fuyuhiko.” you confirm. Nagito slowly shuts his eyes. You really, _really_ hope you’re right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all don't mind me skipping over the details of Nekomaru's final firework, I didn't really feel the need to add anything to it, and we all know how it goes anyway.
> 
> Get ready for the Despair Disease 'cause that's what's comin' up!


	7. A New Motive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a new day after Nekomaru is carted off in an ambulance, but it seems like things are only getting weirder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapters pretty heavy with canon game dialogue, although i tried to change things up here and there, so I won't blame you if you just skim parts that you've read a thousand times.

You’re woken up by Monokuma’s loud voice on the monitor, cheerfully informing you that it’s morning once again. You roll over onto your stomach and put your pillow over your head. You don’t want to hear his voice. You don’t want to ever see him, or any of his bullshit, ever again. But that’s not a choice you get to make. 

Last night you left Nagito’s cottage shortly after he fell asleep, hoping you’d be able to do the same. But of course, that didn’t happen. You barely got any sleep. In total, maybe twenty minutes, sleeping on and off for short amounts of time for what felt like days. But now it’s morning, and you’ve never wanted to see another person this much in your entire life. You don’t want to feel like this alone. You push yourself up and out of bed, rubbing the tiredness from your eyes and starting to get ready to head to the restaurant. 

Your morning routine goes by without you even really noticing, you don’t feel entirely present as you go through the motions. It feels as though you’re in a dream, not really controlling what’s happening and just watching from just outside your own body. After brushing your teeth you stare at yourself in the mirror, your eyes narrowing as you’re faced with your own appearance. You try your best to shake off the feeling and head outside, maybe talking to someone will ground you in reality.

You drift towards the hotel, almost not noticing Fuyuhiko standing by the pool and staring down into the water. You walk over to him, he probably feels similar to the way you do right now. Disconnected and desperate for company. 

You stand beside him and after a moment he looks up, slightly startled by your sudden appearance. “Oh, it’s you Hajime. Heh… Even in such an abnormal situation, people still get hungry…” he makes a weak attempt at a smile which quickly disappears from his lips. He sighs. “Nekomaru… What’d that bastard mean by his “final firework”? That line’s more suited to a yakuza anyway.”

“Nekomaru must’ve wanted to protect Akane at all costs. Just like how Peko wanted to protect you…” you regret your words the second they leave your lips, finding yourself cringing internally at how stupid it is to say something like that to him.

A fire ignites in Fuyuhikos eyes. “Shut up… Don’t say another word…!” he takes a deep breath, his expression turning into one of exhaustion rather than anger. “Just go on ahead to the restaurant… I’ll come later.” he turns and walks away, back towards the cottages. 

“Fuyuhiko…” you say as you watch him retreat. You should leave him alone for now. You just hope he knows you didn’t mean to upset him. 

You head into the hotel swearing to yourself that you’re not going to fuck up another interaction today. Chiaki is playing games as usual, but they seem to lack their usual concentration, looking up at the sound of you entering the lobby. 

“G’morning... Hajime…” They sound like they got even less sleep than usual, there are dark circles under their eyes and their shoulders are drooping. 

“Yeah… Morning...” 

Chiaki stares at you for a moment, their head tilted. “Being depressed won’t help. Let’s believe in Nekomaru.” they say, their eyes filling with more energy. “C’mon, feel better.”

Unfortunately, you find yourself unable to match their enthusiasm. You're having trouble even having conversations in the first place. The conversation ends there, an awkward conclusion that you’ll probably feel a bit guilty about later. Chiaki slowly turns their attention back to their game, but watches you out of the corner of their eye as you head towards the stairs. You stop in your tracks when you hear a sound; a sob. Your eyebrows furrow as you look up towards the doorway to the restaurant. Which one of the girls is crying? You glance back at Chiaki, but they don’t seem to have heard the sound, so you start up the stairs alone. 

You’re shocked by what you see when you enter. Akane… She’s kneeling on the ground by one of the pillars, her head in her hands as she sobs hysterically. You rush over and crouch down beside her. “A- Akane…? You’re the one… Who’s crying…?” Hiyoko or Mikan you’d understand, you’d expect it. But you’ve never seen Akane in such a state. 

Your question only makes her cry harder, wailing and tangling her fingers in her hair. “I- I… I’m scared… What’s… Gonna happen to us…?” she sobs. “I’m scared!” You’re stunned. You never thought that she’d… Did something happen? Is she in shock about Nekomaru? Yesterday she was acting… So much braver… 

You look up to see who else is in the restaurant, finding Nagito and Hiyoko standing near Mahiru’s shrine. You frown. They’re just standing there, not paying any attention to Akane whatsoever. Hiyoko is to be expected, in fact, it’s probably best she doesn’t try to comfort Akane, she’d only make things worse. But Nagito? You’d expect him to at least be beside her saying something asinine about hope. You gently tell Akane that you’ll be back in a moment and get to your feet, walking over to them in annoyance.

Hiyoko looks as angry as ever, staring sullenly at Nagito and pouting with her arms crossed. She looks up at you when you approach her. “Hey… It’s definitely best if we keep Nagito tied up. No, not just tied up. I won’t be satisfied until I peel off the skin of his face and expose the meat so we can’t identify him anymore…!” 

Your frown deepens, no matter how many times she says things like that you’re never accustomed to it. “Th- that doesn’t sound very gentle… Did he do something to you?”

“That idiot… He lied about Mahiru being alive and said he saw her at the movie theatre...”

You glance over at the liar in question. He’s staring intensely at what seems to be nothing, apparently not listening to your conversation with Hiyoko at all.” “Why… Why would he tell such a pointless lie?”

Hiyoko’s eyes become watery and she brings her shoulders up close to her neck. “I don’t know… I… I hate being lied to… I won’t feel satisfied until his joints are bent at awkward angles!”

Nagito is definitely someone who does strange, totally inexplicable things, but you can’t recall him ever telling such a strange lie. You walk over to him and stand in front of him so you're in his line of sight, but his eyes don’t focus on you. “Hey, Nagito. Is… Everything okay? Everyone’s acting, uh,” you glance over at Akane, who’s still sobbing on the ground. “Weird.” 

He says nothing for a second, then he finally seems to focus on your face and he moves suddenly, grabbing your shoulders tightly and staring into your eyes. “Hajime, Be careful! That’s probably not the real Fuyuhiko!”

You blink and glance behind you, he hasn’t arrived yet. “Uh-”

“I know. The real Fuyuhiko is already dead. That’s why that’s probably… Fuyuhiko’s clone!” He yells. He sounds totally genuine, what’s wrong with him? 

You carefully remove his hands from your shoulders and step back. “You- Nagito.... what’s going on?”

He barely seems to notice that you’ve moved him and continues on his tangent as if he wasn’t interrupted in the first place. “Also, I heard from Monokuma that Nekomaru couldn’t be saved. It’s unfortunate… But a transfer student is apparently going to come soon as a replacement…” His face shifts from complete seriousness to a cheerful grin. “So let’s all give that person a warm welcome!”

You don’t understand why he’s acting like this. You thought maybe you were starting to understand him after spending so much time around him recently, but this is a whole new level of insanity. “Why are you doing this? Why would you lie about something like that?”

“I’m not messing around! I always speak the truth! In order to prove it… I’ll explain it specially to you.” You raise your eyebrows, hoping for something that at least makes a little bit of sense. “Listen carefully, Hajime! I’ve finally discovered who the traitor is! You know… The true identity of World Ender… the traitor who was hiding among us is…” He raises his hand up to point at you, his finger just an inch or two away from your face, almost hitting you in the process, making you stumble backwards. “Byakuya! That’s right! Byakuya is alive!”

You bat his hand away from you. Should you be exasperated or genuinely worried? He just said all that with so much conviction, does he really believe it? “Just… Stay put, alright? Don’t wander off. I’ll be back.”

Nagito scoffs. “ _Someone_ has to protect this island from Monomi’s doomsday device! I can’t just stand here.” He proceeds to not move an inch and turns his attention away from you, back to staring at nothing. 

You roll your eyes and head back over to Akane. You kneel down beside her once more. “What happened Akane? It’s not like you to cry…” 

“I… I dunno what to do anymore… I mean... Nekomaru got killed, you know?”

Yesterday she seemed to have so much faith that he would come back. It made you believe she could be right. “It’s… Not like Nekomaru is dead yet…” at least you hope he isn’t even if Nagito states the contrary.

Her voice trembles, occasionally she hiccups between sobs. “I’m scared… I don’t want this anymore…! I wanna go home!” 

You rub her back nervously. You start trying to comfort her, but you're interrupted almost immediately. “Pardon me everyone, but do you have some time to spare?” you jump to your feet, whirling around to see Ibuki. Her eyes are wide and unfocused, and there’s drool running down her chin. “It may be rude of me, but I like to say my greetings first thing in the morning. Good morning! I look forward to working with you all today!” 

That’s definitely not true, she’s never addressed you, or anyone else like this as far as you know. “I- Ibuki?!”

“Yes! I am Ibuki Mioda!”

You open your mouth to say something when you’re interrupted once more when Nagito speaks up, making you jump because he is apparently standing directly behind you. “Be careful Ibuki!” he says, pushing you out of his way so he’s standing in front of her. “Hajime’s dangerous. He wants to kill and eat you.” 

“Wh- What are you saying!?” you think you should be offended, but in your state of confusion you don’t even have time to think about that.

“Mr Hajime! I am not tasty! please do not eat me!” she says, her face unchanging, still vacant and unnerving. 

“He’s obviously lying!” 

“I see! So it was a lie!”

“It’s not a lie. I never tell lies.” he insists.   
“I see! So it is not a lie! It may be necessary for me to beg for my life after all!”

The more Nagito and Ibuki say, the more confused you become. You turn to Nagito, who is now standing stiffly at your side with his hands balled into fists. “Nagito, look at me.” He turns his head toward you and you look at his eyes. They’re similar to Ibuki’s, strangely vacant and foggy. Not only that, he’s sweating. Well, more than he usually is. 

Hiyoko walks over curiously peering down at Akane. “Did they go crazy or something? It wouldn’t be weird to go crazy in a situation like this.”

“Y- You’ve got it wrong!” Mikan’s voice rings out from the top of the stairs, she looks frightened and anxious and quickly rushes over to Ibuki. “Please, j- just try touching her forehead! You’ll see what I mean.”

“Ibuki, just a second?” you ask, holding out your hand.

“In exchange, please spare my life!” 

You ignore her nonsensical babbling and put your hand on her forehead, quickly retracting it in horror after feeling the heat. “Th- this heat is abnormal!”

“That’s right! She has a terribly high fever!” Mikan explains.

You turn swiftly to Nagito. “Nagito, let me feel your forehead!”

“I don’t have a fever!” Nagito laughs as if the concept is ridiculous. “I feel extremely great today.” you pay his comment no mind, pushing the hair back from his face and putting your hand on his forehead. It’s the same, maybe even worse than Ibuki. 

“H- he has a fever too!” you inform Mikan, whose anxiety seems to be growing by the second. You proceed to do the same to Akane and get the same result. All three of them seem to be extremely sick. Of course. You should’ve realized this was a possibility. Akane and Ibuki are acting completely out of character, and Nagito… This is not his brand of weird. You never thought of him as a liar. Unhinged, sure. But he never seemed any more dishonest than anyone else on the island, even if he is incredibly difficult to read. 

“My goodness! This is obviously bad!” you jump back at the voice, and of course, it’s Monokuma. You were truly hoping not to have to see him again for a long time, but you’re not that lucky. 

You scramble backwards from him, bumping into Nagito who doesn’t seem to register your collision. “If you’re here, does this mean…”

“Woah there, can you wait just a second for the explanation? The others are on their way too!”  
The sound of pounding footsteps begin as soon as he finishes his sentence, coming up the stairs and causing the floor to shake slightly. Just as he said, everyone files into the restaurant, standing around in utter confusion. You can’t blame them, you’re still totally lost and you’ve been here since the beginning of this fiasco. Once everyones in, Monokuma begins his explanation. Of course, he’s behind all this, why wouldn’t he be? After everything that’s happened on this island, you shouldn’t be surprised anymore. He explains the Despair Disease, a disease spread by microscopic bugs that dwell on the island which causes miserable symptoms that change from carrier to carrier. He explains that this is his next motive… A disease that could potentially drive someone to kill.

The group is plunged into chaos, not helped by the insane behaviors of the carriers of the disease. Everyone's talking over each other, you can barely make sense of any of it. And Monokuma only feeds on the discourse. He stands amongst the group, looking pleased with himself and his brilliant new motive, watching. You can’t help being angry. All the things he’s done to your friends, he only nearly killed Nekomaru yesterday, and now this. You clench your jaw, no longer listening to anyone else’s voices, only staring down at Monokuma with pure, unadulterated hatred. 

The only thing that pulls you from your own thoughts is when you hear Nagito say something. “Maan, whatever, I feel so great today! This Despair Disease is awesome!” he says. “Despair! Despair! Despair! Despair! Despair! It’s amazing! You should all get it too!” he laughs hysterically. He’s starting to sweat more.

“Nagito, maybe you should-” you start.

He turns to you, grabbing desperately at the front of your shirt. “We’re all done for! There’s no such thing as hope! We all have to die from the Despair Disease…” his hands start to shake and you stare at him, eyes wide. “That’s… the… o… only… way…” his grip on your shirt goes lax and his eyes roll back in his head. He collapses, and you go down with him, just barely catching him in your arms before he hits the floor.

“Woah! He collapsed!” Kazuichi says in shock, he almost sounds impressed.

“N- Nagito?!” you say with a start, staring down at him. Mikan rushes over, kneeling down beside you and hurriedly checking his temperature. Monokuma starts talking again, but you’re not listening. You don’t care what he has to say anymore. He disappears as inexplicably as he appeared a few minutes before, and you stare at the spot where he just was. What you wouldn’t give to punt that fucking bear across the island and into the sea.

“Th- this is bad! Nagito’s foaming at the mouth!” Mikan cries, hovering over him and seemingly unsure what to do next. 

You look back down at him, and well, she’s right. He is, indeed, foaming at the mouth. Hiyoko lets out a frightened sound. “She’s right! I’ve never seen foam that color before!”

“It’s an ephemerally rare color… Normally only found in the depths of the Netherworld sea...!” Gundham steps back, pointing a shaking hand at Nagito.

You groan in exasperation. “Guys, can we please shut up about the color of the foam?!”

Mikan stands purposefully. “Hajime is right, the color doesn’t matter! Let’s just get him to the hospital.”

“R- right! I’ll help!” you say.

Sonia speaks up nervously “Um… What should we do about Akane and Ibuki?!”

“We’re definitely going to bring them too…” Fuyuhiko turns towards the two of them, they’ve barely moved from their previous spots. “We don’t know what they’ll do if we leave them here...: Hey bastards, can you walk?”

“Allow me to confirm! I just have to alternate the movements of my left and right leg, correct!?” Ibuki asks.

Akane wails, getting feet with the dexterity of a baby deer standing for the first time. “Hold on… I- I’ll walk so don’t leave me...!” 

“Th- then... lets go!” Mikan says, and everyone gets ready to take the sick to the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the abrupt end to this chapter, it was actually five thousand words long but i decided I should break it up a bit.


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